Articles

The City Council voted against two proposed ordinances Monday — one regarding medical marijuana and the other lowering penalties for those possessing small amounts of marijuana — but decided unanimously to send the initiatives to a special election on Nov. 2.

The vote came after petitions were filed by the Columbia Alliance for Patients and Education. The two petitions were certified by City Clerk Sheela Amin in mid-July.

As election season heats up, voters have not only begun looking at the candidates’ stances on the issues, but their moral beliefs as well. While it is sometimes held that liberals are more compassionate than conservatives, some Republicans — including President Bush — have tried to combat this perception in their political campaigns.

Three researchers, including an MU professor, put the perceived differences between liberals and conservatives to the test. Using two types of experimental games, the researchers concluded that liberals and conservatives are equally trustworthy and just as likely to act outside of their immediate self-interest.

A jury from another county will be brought in to hear the case against murder suspect Ryan Ferguson, now scheduled for trial in late January.

Boone County Prosecutor Kevin Crane and defense attorney Scott McBride agreed on Lincoln County as the source for potential jurors for the trial. Ferguson, 19, has been charged with first-degree murder and first-degree robbery in connection with the 2001 death of Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor Kent Heitholt.

When they were deployed during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Missouri Task Force One’s trained volunteers became one of the New York Fire Department’s most vital resources, former department Commissioner Thomas Von Essen said Monday. But similar task forces can grow even stronger, he said, by mobilizing more ordinary individuals to join.

“The experience, the discipline and the training of the task force truly did a remarkable job for us,” Von Essen told a small audience at the Boone County Fire Protection District headquarters in Columbia as part of a campaign event for President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. “To have 20 to 25 men come in and not have to worry about training them, that experience is a great resource.”

The first and only vice president for information systems of the University of Missouri system has announced his retirement.

Ralph Caruso became the UM system’s first chief information officer and vice president for information systems in 1992, when then-president George Russell decided the position was necessary because of the increasing role information technology was playing in higher education. Caruso announced Monday that he plans to retire on March 31, 2005.

The area now known as Jefferson Landing State Historic Site was a hub for activity in mid-1800s Jefferson City.

The city that sprung up along the waterway only had about 30 houses when it was chosen as the capital of the state. At the heart of this early city were the Lohman building and the Union Hotel building, which now make up the historic landing. Hotels and restaurants near the dock and train station flourished during a time when all visitors and goods arriving to the city came in by rail or boat.

Vehicle occupants who buckle up are injured in just one of seven crashes and their chance of being killed is only one in 1,108. When motorists don’t wear seat belts, their risk of injury is one in three and the risk of being killed increases to one in 39.

Child or infant abuse can sometimes stem from postpartum depression — mothers feeling sadness or anxiety after giving birth. But in Columbia, a support group called Mother Helpers is organizing to assist first-time mothers in need of emotional and physical support.

The time right after a woman gives birth is the most stressful. The mother is going through emotional changes and a hormonal withdrawal that can cause sudden depression, said Dr. Robert Harris, a pediatrician at Columbia Regional Hospital. In addition to the physical side effects of giving birth, the mother must devote all her time to the baby. Harris said many women do not have time to sleep, eat or shower because the baby takes so much of their time.

I was thrilled to get feedback by way of e-mail about last week’s column about forming more political parties. I know that some folks think that the two-party system is the only way this democracy can function. But just as I suspected, some people are clearly fed up with the two-party system. I understand the party loyalists, and believe me, if I knew any other way to get the politician’s attention I would certainly try it. But you can see that Ralph Nader has their attention, even if it’s in a negative way. He’s being called “the spoiler” because people are afraid he will draw votes away from the other candidates.

I read a comprehensive report on the 9/11 Commission’s findings, and it was pretty sobering. We are told over and over again that we have the most effective and efficient government in the world and that is the story that we want to believe. The fact that 3,000 people lost their lives in the 9/11 tragedy certainly presents a compelling case for overhauling our intelligence-gathering agencies, but beyond that I don’t have any great expectations that anyone will be held accountable.

CREVE COEUR – At the end of the longest day in Champions Tour history and on the longest course in U.S. Senior Open history, the man with a recently repaired left hip was at the top of the leaderboard.

Three months removed from the operating table, Peter Jacobsen outlasted everyone in the field Sunday at Bellerive Country Club, posting a 69 and a 68 during the grueling 36-hole final round to win the tournament at 12-under, one stroke ahead of Hale Irwin.

Two proposals for changing the way Columbia deals with misdemeanor marijuana cases will be considered by the Columbia City Council tonight.

The proposals are the result of initiative petitions from the Columbia Alliance for Patients and Education. One calls for dismissing charges against people caught with marijuana if they have a doctor’s approval to use the drug. The other calls for handling misdemeanor possession cases in Municipal Court and prohibiting jail time. Rejection of the initiatives would require that the council place the initiatives on the Nov. 2 general election ballot.